In the last few years, Janet Mock has become one of the nation’s most visible and outspoken advocates and activists for transgender communities, and next week she is bringing her experiences to Philadelphia.
Mock will serve as one of the keynote speakers for the 13th annual Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference, taking the stage at 1 p.m. June 12 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 108 A.
Mock, a writer and public speaker, made headlines when she came out publicly as a transwoman in a Marie Claire article in 2011, going on to use her platform to fight for trans rights, specifically for trans women of color. She was named to Out Magazine’s OUT100 last year and penned the book “Redefining Realness” earlier this year.
Mock has been traveling for six months promoting her book and said she has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, including making the New York Times’ Best Sellers list.
During a press visit on “Piers Morgan Live” to promote the book, Piers asked Mock several invasive questions about her dating life and anatomy and referred to Mock as someone who used to be a boy, while a show description referred to Mock as having been a “boy until age 18.”
Mock reiterated the message that she had always been a woman and that her journey began long before gender-reassignment surgery.
Shortly before Mock’s interview, transgender actor Laverne Cox from Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” and model Carmen Carrera of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” were on the “Katie Couric Show” and were asked similar questions pertaining to their bodies.
Mock said such experiences show the media ignorance towards transgender people’s lives and stories.
“I don’t want to demonize these journalists but it is important that people don’t think and frame understanding trans people in those specific ways,” she said. “It is something I don’t want to shut down, but challenge.”
Mock did challenge those questions with a pretend interview with Alicia Menendez of “Alicia Menendez Tonight” three weeks ago, asking her invasive questions pertaining to her own cisgender identity.
“It was a demonstration and we tried to use our resources to show what would happen if the tables were turned and cis people were asked those kind of questions,” she said. “We wanted to show people through that experience that it is not OK to ask people about their bodies in an invasive way and stress definitions of labels and definitions of people without giving them a chance to speak.”
Mock said accurate visibility in the media can help in the effort to curb violence against transgender people.
“We have visibility but we need it to challenge the dehumanizing portraits and portrayals of transwomen,” she said. “One thing that makes it easy and makes a lot of the murders justified are the way transwomen are portrayed as tricking men to sleep with them, and the idea that transwomen are not real. We need to take it to the next level and educate communities on a local level that transwomen are not deviants or outcasts — we’re a central part of these communities, we exist and we are worthy of attention.”
These are some of the messages Mock plans to bring to PTHC.
She said she was approached by the conference board to participate and was humbled by the request.
“It is the biggest conference there is that is organized for and by trans people, and the fact that it is free sends a great message because the organizers understand that access to money and services can be difficult for trans people,” Mock said. “It is an open and accessible conference and that is powerful.”
Mock said she hopes attendees learn from and are empowered by her story.
“With my story and my work and through my own journey, I learned to maintain my own well-being and self-care while doing vital urgent work within our community. But in the movement, we often don’t talk about how we got through that journey and taking care of ourselves and our community, and we need to hold each other accountable for that,” she said. “I am looking forward to sharing space with activists who have been working in the movement and hearing their stories and questions they have for me.”
For more information on PTHC, visit www.trans-health.org. For more information on Janet Mock, visit www.janetmock.com.